I am proud to say that Emily will be moving forward to the First Grade this fall.She will move up from her Kindergarten PDD class to a First Grade PDD class and will attend the Extended School year for a portion of the summer.

Here are a few notes from her IEP:

Emily is a kindergarten student in a self-contained PDD program. Emily is a happy girl who enjoys spending time with her teachers and classmates. Emily demonstrates the ability to follow classroom routines with assistance from a 1:1 for the entire school day.

Emily is currently using a token economy system in which she is expected to earn five tokens for compliance. Emily enjoys earning a variety of items, including stuffed animals, books and mini figurines. Emily enjoys and responds well to positive praise. At times Emily engages in self-stimulatory behavior (vocal stims/finger play), this behavior is redirected by giving general directions (“touch the dog….”), directional cues (“clap your hands….”), or signaling “quiet lips”. Emily will also display some non compliant behavior (usually during fine-motor activities) that involves vocal protesting and attempting to leave the area. Having the reinforcer in sight helps to motivate Emily. Emily’s fine motor and gross motor skills continue to develop.

Prompting continues to be used to encourage handing different textures, utilizing crayons/markers, and developing strokes. Emily is showing more confidence in her gross motor skills, she will manipulate steps on playground equipment, go down the slide, and is independently maneuvering through the classroom.

Emily receives discrete trial instruction with goals from the Assessment of Basic Language and Learning program. She is currently working on receptive language skills, identifying pictures/objects, actions, and matching like items. She is also working on basic math skills and basic reading skills.

Emily continues to work on self help skills such as, zippering, feeding (opening containers) and cleaning her activities up.

When Emily is given the support she progresses in all areas. Praise and encouragement, consistent reinforcement, and structured routine and environment, a multi-sensory approach to learning, and providing opportunities for student breaks have all been beneficial to Emily’s learning.

Weekly Theme: “Fire Prevention”
This week the students learned about Fire Prevention. They attended a special assembly held by the Williamstown Firefighters and had the opportunity to explore a firetruck.

Letter of the Week: Big F, Little f

Speech/Language Therapy:
Emily identified pictures receptively. She also worked on identifying pictures by function and description. Provided max cues. She also imitated sounds with cues and models.